Recipe Card Design
The Challenge
Recipes have always been an opportunity to try something new and unique. For this project, I had to create a piece that stood as visually striking, but with limited time and a 3-color palette.
Research
For any project, it is essential to gather the necessary research in order to gain a thorough understanding of the assignment. I especially wanted to be able to capture what recipes look like already but add my own twist to them.
So I took a few hours of my process just researching how other designers tackle the assignment, colors that people use, the type that is common, and more.
Color Studies
Color can often be the lifeblood of a design, offering an eye-catching effect that grabs the viewer’s attention, especially when flipping through the pages of a recipe book. Thus, I wanted to make sure that my colors offered a story to be told, while still catching the essence of an apple crisp. This ended with many reds and browns for that autumn-fall feeling, along with some blues for the winter that apple crisp warms us up in.
Type Studies
Sketches
Compositions
Here is when everything is able to come together, and for me is the really fun part. Being able to try multiple attempts reviews the issues within each design, and gives me insight into which design works best for this project. For this, I really liked the modern and slick design of the third composition, compared to the more old-fashioned feeling I get from the first two.
Final Designs
I am super happy with how this project came out! I think it is both uniquely me while still being a fun and unique take on a recipe card. One of the biggest problems when running projects like this one is the opportunity to run into a million and one things that look exactly the same.
When you are in that vein, it’s important to not break the box so much that it is actively inhibiting the reader from using it, but unique enough that it feels visually distinct from the pact. I believe I hit that happy medium here and was glad to make my own apple crisp following this recipe.
